"I Only Ate It Occasionally to Relieve Stress?" ... Just Twice a Week Linked to 28% Higher Breast Cancer Risk - a Shock

Long-Term Study Tracking 70,000 Korean Women
Breast Cancer Risk 28% Higher Among High-Sugar Food Consumers
No Association Found With Sugar From Fruit

A study has found that dietary habits involving frequent consumption of sweet foods may increase women's risk of developing breast cancer. The risk was particularly high among women who frequently ate certain high-sugar foods, such as ice cream and sugar-rich cereals. By contrast, sugar intake from fruit was not clearly associated with breast cancer risk.

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A joint research team that included Professor Shin Wookyung of Mokwon University recently reported an association between high-sugar food consumption and women's risk of developing breast cancer in a paper published in the European Journal of Nutrition.

The study included 71,264 women aged 40 to 69 who participated in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (HEXA-G) from 2004 to 2013. The researchers analyzed their dietary habits and linked the data to national cancer registry statistics to track breast cancer diagnoses through the end of 2018. The average follow-up period was 9.2 years, during which 713 cases of breast cancer were recorded.

High-sugar foods were defined as foods with high sugar content among the food groups identified through a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).

The researchers used a Cox proportional hazards model to estimate breast cancer risk according to high-sugar food consumption. The average follow-up period was 9.2 years, during which 713 cases of breast cancer were recorded. The study participants consumed an average of 44 g of sugar per day.

Consuming High-Sugar Foods at Least Twice a Week Linked to 28% Higher Risk

The analysis found that fruit contributed the most to total sugar intake, accounting for 42.89%. Korean traditional tea ranked next at 5.60%, followed by ice cream at 2.51%.

Compared with women who consumed high-sugar foods less than once a month, women who ate them more than twice a week had a 28% higher risk of developing breast cancer. In particular, consumption of sugar-rich cereals and ice cream was significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

By contrast, fruit, which accounted for the largest share of total sugar intake, was not found to have a statistically significant association with breast cancer risk.

Food Type May Matter More Than Sugar Intake

The researchers said the findings suggest that not only the amount of sugar consumed but also the types of foods through which it is consumed may be important when examining breast cancer risk.

However, the study analyzed associations between the consumption of certain foods and breast cancer incidence; it did not establish a causal relationship showing that high-sugar foods directly cause breast cancer.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.